In the biggest haul of ration rice in the State in 2025, Madurai unit of Civil Supplies -Crime Investigation Department seized around 55 tonnes of ration rice illegally hoarded in a godown here.
The seizure made last week has blown the lid off an organised gang operating in different districts for collecting PDS rice and sell it as cattle/poultry feed.
The sleuths also seized four cargo vehicles, including three trucks and a pickup van, and arrested six persons from Madurai, Kumbakonam and Kovilpatti.
Based on a specific input received by its Superintendent of Police R. Srinivasa Perumal, a team of sleuths, including its Deputy Superintendent of Police and Inspector, rushed to the godown, functioning along a rice mill, and found several workers loading bags of rice in different cargo vehicles.
“Our officials alerted the Civil Supplies Flying Squad who inspected the site and confirmed that the goods belonged to public distribution system (PDS),” said Mr. Srinivasa Perumal.
The officials found that a total of 3,600 kg of PDS rice and also 51,300 kg of broken PDS rice stocked in the godown and also loaded in the vehicles.
The CS-CID officials arrested V. Meenakshi Sundaram, 35, of Madurai, who has been identified as the rice mill owner and vehicle owner and his partner C. Muthukannan, 26.
Besides, a rice collector A. Ramamoorthi of Kovilpatti and three drivers were arrested and sent to remand.
Investigation revealed that different districts have got different gangs that have been collecting PDS rice from the beneficiaries and stock them in different places before moving them in bulk quantity to the end user.
“We got the tip-off at the right time when the gang was trying to load them into vehicles for taking them to Dharapuram in Namakkal district,” the SP said.
He suspected that the huge quantity of PDS rice could have been collected over a period of one month.
“In order to hoodwink the flying squads and CS-CID teams, the gang has turned the rice into broken rice,” Mr. Srinivasa Perumal said.
He said that the CS-CID Inspector General of Police Rupesh Kumar Meena had instructed to prevent smuggling of ration rice in order to ensure that the free rice distributed through ration shops reached the targeted beneficiaries.
“The Government spends huge subsidy towards free distribution of ration rice with the intention that the poorest of the poor should get free rice so that there is no hunger,” the SP said.
However, the middlemen entice the poor people with paltry sum of money and deprive them of rice, thereby forcing the beneficiaries to pay more for buying rice from open market for the family.
The gang has a network of poultry units that buy the ration rice for as high as â‚ą23 per kg to feed the birds.
The accused were booked under Tamil Nadu Scheduled Commodities (Regulation of Distribution by Card System) Order, 1982, and under Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
The SP said that hunt for few more accused was under way.
He warned that such accused could get a maximum punishment of 7 years of jail and repeat offenders could be detained under the Goondas Act.
CS-CID could be alerted about smuggling of ration goods over toll-free number of 18005995950.
Published – August 08, 2025 09:31 pm IST
